World TeamTennis on for July 12 season open

World TeamTennis CEO Carlos Silva says the league is “still on track for July 12” to open its three-week season and is hoping to select a site this week.a telephone interview Monday with the AP that four cities are “in the mix.” He mentioned Texas and Florida as possible host states.

The International Tennis Federation and the ATP and WTA tours said Friday they were extending their suspensions of play into late July because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Silva said in But World TeamTennis is not sanctioned by those three groups and doesn’t need to follow their guidelines.

The WTT already had announced that it would be picking one city to host all nine of its teams for the 2020 season, instead of playing matches around the United States, as it usually does.

Silva said he has been monitoring other events taking place recently to see how they handled health protocols, including UFC fights over the past week-plus and a NASCAR race Sunday in Darlington, South Carolina.

Neither of those sports allowed spectators and while WTT’s plan at the moment is to do the same, Silva said it is possible a small number of fans might be allowed, depending on where the matches are.